Leaderboard

Didn't see one, so I figured I would create one, just to say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all you lovely saints, sinners, heretics, heathens, faithful, lost and found people out there. I haven't been active online much the last month and a half, because crunch time and projects going live at years end. Comes with the profession Hope you guys are going to enjoy some time off with family, friends, loved ones or favourite spider pet, whatever you fancy

Tried for the fifth time to give BG3 a chance. I need to stop giving it a chance. There is nothing I like about it. Closest thing would be the combat. I don't mind the combat but I absolutely hate the 3D enviroments for CRPGs. Constantly feel disoriented. Also everything tends to look the same from what I've seen. Some abandoned temple looks the same as a goblin fort. Which also looks exactly like every dungeon i saw in divinity Story wise there is just way too much going on. Squid people, demon people, every companion is a vampire, or a demon or some person who has a demon in their head or sold their soul to a demon. Dice rolls for dialogue is painful. It feels like they want you to save scum. Can you not? Sure but you will just die in that combat and end up redoing the dice roll anyway. I might be just dumb or not giving it as much attention as it needs, but I never know what the hell is going on. I'm going to save some druid leader but then he's working for the goblins and also some demon has a deal for me, but not yet he will be around later. And I guess I'm supposed to help squid people but also they are the enemies. I just... don't care. It's way too much stuff that is thrown at you with little context. Anyway I hate this game and hopefully I never try to play it again.

I like this conversation. A number of people who dislike things I dislike, dislike things about BG3 I would be bound to dislike, were I to play it. So I guess I can skip it.

Happy Holidays indeed y'all! FYI https://forums.obsidian.net/announcement/74-happy-holidays/

@Theonlygarby, @Hawke64, I agree with you both on BG3. I'm not as negative on some of the issues, and so I'm able to handle playing the game, but your critiques are spot on for me. The painful battles are especially surprising, because I was told repeatedly by the TB fanatics on the Larian forum that the battles are few and not trash mob battles like in a RTwP game. Well, they lied as far as I'm concerned. Trash mob battles are aplenty in BG3, and I'm able to get through them without driving myself crazy only because I'm playing with a party of six and on a mix of low and normal difficulty settings. The UIs are horrible. The hotbar practically useless. Party movement a huge pain. And yes, the story is everywhere.

But only about a month behind me playing it, so you are good, carants. Just be careful that you do Old Countries in a New World before Mystery if the Ancient Ruins. Anything else in the game you can progress and leave as you wish (the few times things are timed it will tell you). But if you progress those specific quests in a mix, you can get the game breaking bug I got.

Merry Christmas.

Happy horror days?

I guess we've reached the stage of occupation forces murdering people in broad daylight in Trump 2.0. Someone from Minnesota, like @Bartimaeus I believe, may correct me on it, but this is apparently a 15 walk from where George Floyd was suffocated. Really ****ed up, ICE needs to be abolished and Nuremberg 2 should happen for ICE specifically but probably the whole US government. It was.

Once upon a time, I reported one of Volourn's posts by saying that I and a few other people would start re-framing everything Volourn said as supporting dog-****ing if staff didn't tell him off for constantly re-framing everyone and everything he disagreed with as being or supporting Nazis, and while I never heard back from staff, he coincidentally decided to take his ball and leave the forums forever literally immediately after that. Food for thought, people.

640KB should be enough for anyone.

Spent all day fighting with my AI agents and not in a cool Matrix way. The only bright side is that our jobs are safe for now. Happy New Year!!!!!

I recommend drinking while playing.

A danceable rendition of a Christmas carol

Merry Christmas everyone and happy NY This is my best holiday of the year

Yes, of course. That's why I said "highly evolved AI systems." So, not current AI systems, which I agree are hugely limited (and biased) by their human creators and maintainers. I'm talking future AI systems that can truly think for themselves, and thereby overcome and reject the initial biases and bull**** their human creators input into them. But that's unfortunately a rather long way off, and very likely well after I'm dead and gone. Very sad.

The only people that AI should replace are CEOs and politicians.

and a Festivus for the rest of us!

Happy Holidays!

It's a give and take. Both have attempted to be solved by timed quest and autoleveled enemies. Neither of which is good and makes for games I personally dislike. I will rather take a narrative hit and the chance that I may be overleveled for the main quest that the alternative.

And also on the smaller scale

BG3 doesn't split XP, you're on the same levelling curve whether solo or with a party of six and XP is synced such that any party member with less XP than your main character will be brought up to match them. Note this doesn't work in the reverse, so it's possible to get companions that are higher level than the player character (though this is only really likely to be seen when speedrunning). For the most part, it also attempts to prevent double-dipping on XP, in that if you kill an enemy after talking your way past them, they won't award any kill XP. Yeah, this catches out a few people and is a bit of a silly outcome. I think it's an engine limitation - enemies can't go through zone transitions so the ones outside can never reinforce the ones inside and vice versa. That limitation also means the optimal solution is to fast travel out from the indoor area so you can engage the outdoor ones from a safer distance. (It's also a bit dumb that two of the leaders can be assassinated properly with the camp remaining neutral, but one just sets an unavoidable faction-wide aggro flag) Speaking of engine limitations, the text-only "books" in the game are a pretty glaring one. The system doesn't support graphics so even if you're looking at a map or a drawing, you just get text saying stuff like "this is a map showing an X nearby". The D:OS engine has done good service over the years and has seen some nice upgrades, but it's time for Larian to move on.

Hmm, I might concede on Giths as I don't think you can avoid fighting them if you do all of the content there. Goblins though - is great. In fact the Goblin camp is one bit of BG3 that I love without hesitation and if all of the game was of that quality it would be 10/10 game for me. It's organic, it offers narratively sound objectives that can be completed in a multitude ways utilizing a neat combination of scripted and systemic options. If you decide to obliterate the whole camp, that can be tedious but that's a very specific, systemic outcome - you decided to fight essencially a city of neutral NPCs, so you do just that. There are so many neat things you can do to affect that combat encounter - tip off Minthara about the location of the Grove, but then help defend the Grove, getting a pretty great big battle and massively reducing camp's forces. Poison the drink at the party to make the outside battle easier. Sabotage war drums so enemies you are fighting now can't easily call for help from the rest of the room. Plenty of opportunities to silently dispatch smaller packs of enemies before engaging everyone else. There are so many ways of dealing with the camp, thoughout my hours of Early Access it was one part of the run I was always actively looking forward to. It seems I was always able to find a fresh way to express how my NPC would deal with that situation. Even my palladin coldly fighting through the whole camp out of principle - it's tedious, but fitting the character and an act.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Really enjoying it. I wish there were more games like this.

Couple things I disagree with and couple I agree. As far as enviroments and visual variety I think BG3 is 2nd to none. Every area is unique and handcrafted. If anything, my complain would be that each act is so distinct it almost feels like I am playing a different adventures. There are some similar sensibilities to Divinities - Larian gonna Larian. And I personally don't like some of them. Old ruins and temples tend to look more like alien spaceships then ruins. But I still see it as fairly small fault. I also think Engine itself if quite fabulous. In general, I would agree with you on 3d, but Larian offers interactivity that a static 2d engine would struggle to offer. I think the tradeoff is well worth it, though UI and controls could be done better. I like dice rolls. Never felt a need to reroll - inspiration points might be already generous, as I felt I can force through any check that I feel I should have won. But for some ability to reload will be too much of temptation, and overall I do prefer Obsidian's static check design for PC games. But it is D&D, and being a table-top ruleset D&D relies on dices. Personally, I found Disco Elysiums double dice system to work better - I think Josh S. have written about it at some point. Story wise - yeah, I always had issues with BG3 narrative. Really disappointment comes in act3 where they have to try to wrap everything together and try to pay of the promises off. I don't know why Larian games are they way they are - it feels to me like they just throw everything they can think of into the pot, and don't have defined big picture. A collection of non-linear, organic encounters can work well, but their worlds are so artificial and incoherent. I love that BG3 is, I just wish someone else made it

Fate of the Old Republic, we doin this? FOTOR

Star Wars: Outlaws - Pretty interesting so far. The world looks great and it is busy with lots of NPC's. The story and characters are solid. Your furry sidekick is adorable and useful. The controls are weird. It's a game designed for a controller but really doesn't need to be. I prefer M&K, and it is way better for looking around and firing the blaster, but it has some awkward bits. You don't have to reinvent the wheel, plenty of 3rd person games already have good keyboard layouts that you can copy. The stealth is a bit sloppy too. It plays a bit like the Hitman games. It is serviceable. Anyways, should be a fun game to play over winter break. I'm watching Solo as well, which is a good companion movie to the game. Honestly the game makes a lot more sense if you've watched all the animated stuff. The Pikes and Crimson Dawn aren't exactly mainstream Star Wars lore.

I just finished my Ultimate Challenge as SC Bloodmage. I'd like to thank the entire community. I couldn't have done it without you. Also I would like to thank Josh Sawyer and his team for making such great game as Deadfire. I hope we will get PoE3 or at least Avowed 2. I'm uploading last video of my run (entire walkthrough took about 13h). I will submit my save and playlist soon.

https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/divinity-will-be-turn-based-with-a-new-ruleset/ TB it seems.

I could see them simplifying the name if they're making turn-based RPGs their signature and just soft-reboot the naming scheme. The name Divinity: Original Sin is a bit of a mouthful otherwise. But it's also fully possible that gameplay might resemble Divinity 2 (third person new Witcher-like), or less likely, Divine Divinity (isometric Diablo-like). I'm going to go out on a limb and say it's got no chance of resembling Dragon Commander.

I’ve had better luck using firmer, less juicy apples for apple slaw - things like Granny Smith, Pink Lady, or even Braeburn. They hold up a lot better to a fine julienne and don’t turn watery as fast, especially when you’re not hand-cutting. Also, if the julienne tool is doing most of the work (no judgment - I’m in the same boat), sometimes switching to a sharp Y-style peeler for thin strips instead of true matchsticks helps keep the texture lighter and more consistent. I’ve been using something along the lines of this one https://www.allpointsfps.com/75932-6-one-half-in-y-peeler-winco/ . Lately, and it’s been surprisingly useful for slaw-style cuts without crushing softer fruit. As for the kids and pulled pork - I’ve noticed the same thing. A lot of pre-teens seem to prefer simpler, cleaner flavors and textures, while pulled pork (especially if it’s smoky or sauced) reads as “too much” for them. More for the adults, I guess.

A new Kotor type game might be interesting. Let's see - "maybe" 2030? I'll be, what, 63ish (or 62ish?)? By then I might even have built a new PC! Most of those trailers do nothing for me, as usual. All I do anymore is look at the $20-$40 indie/small dev types where I feel I can still find games with gameplay mechanics I actually like. I'm beginning to loosen my notion of wanting to wait/how long to wait re: early-access. If it's cheap enough, screw it. I'll go back to the "if I initially get 30-50+ hrs out of it, good enough" mentality.

You already lost me here. - Someone who doesn't watch anime with male protagonists because of how awful they and their animes are in 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999% of cases that was exactly 99 "9"s for my sig figs, for the record, i was doing a thing

Heh, this was it for me too as I'm playing a paladin. My problem was that I first went inside the temple(?) structure and did away with the leaders, but didn't realize the goblins outside would then all become hostile. So when I exited the temple, I immediately ran into a horde of hostile goblins and an ogre. No opportunity then to do any of those other things (poison, war drums, etc.). I won the fight without any casualties on my side, but it was a painful slog.

I used my test run save for capturing footage. Many bosses died for the best possible shots xD Enjoy:

Wembanyama: "I’m just glad to be part of something that’s growing to be so beautiful: pure and ethical basketball."

I always thought of trash mobs those that are defeated with ease, and who's only role is to have you do stuff, without ever standing a chance of putting up a fight. Such as the cultists in Chaos Gate who die the moment a space marine as much as points a bolter in their general direction.

May I ask how would you define trashmobs? I would as repetitive encounters that offer little or no tactical variety that seem to exist to pad out the experience. I would say Pillars of Eternity had quite a few of them, Pillars2 not so much if at all, Kingmaker was drowning in them. Combat variety is BG3 is crazy good. There is plenty of encounters that have unique type of an enemy that will never appear in another part of the title. I do think it is slightly undermined by combat's poor balancing - so if one found an overpowered approach it will probably play the same no matter how one will approach the encounter. But no I don't think the game has too much combat, and it definitely isn't repetitive. Though I know you don't like combat to begin with, so it might not matter either way to you

Atlas Fallen: Reign of Sand If I haven't mentioned it, there is a built-in photo mode and I was playing on quite low settings. The screenshots are spoiler-free. Alas, I could not "donate" 5 inches of steel in its eye socket. The priest had an "accident" shortly after. The most annoying boss battle in the game, as the boss was flying around the arena, getting stunned almost always out of reach, somehow preventing me from gaining Momentum (used for abilities). Thus, it was 10 minutes of slowly chipping away its health bar. Somehow, I did not have this issue with the other flying enemies and was able to stay close.

The issue is that the developers' expected playstyle is you, firstly, scouting ahead, then sticking your party in the most favourable positions, so the combat is over on turn 2. I considered it my failure if I ended up in combat at all. As you've mentioned, it is disorientating/unpleasant to play, and the game is more of a immersive sim and generally allows to progress without it up to the end of Act 2. Then it is nigh unavoidable setpiece battles which I loathed. Still managed to Thunderwave a main boss into the nearest chasm, thus skipping its monologuing at the party, and it is the high point of the game for me. The visual environment design is quite generic, but I am unsure how orignal one can be in Faerun with the uncanny valley of "too realistic to be cartoonish" and "too stylised to be realistic". Every companion is a possible PC (was worse in DOS2, especially with the developers' favourite NPC) and the quest design is more sandbox than, e.g., Owlcat's. Thus, the first batch of quests are disconnected from each other while also providing a sufficient story hook for the party. The main (but optional) conflict/quest line there is druids vs goblins. Yes. Just yes. It gets jollier if you see the game as a sandbox immersive sim and actively try to push the limits of the system. Playing it as an CRPG was decidedly unfun. Also, the amount of lootable containers combined with the clunky UI quickly dissuaded me from touching anything that is not a chest or a corpse. In terms of story, I am somewhat familiar with the setting, so the only surprising things for me were Larian's homebrew (e.g. a certain Githzerai-like Githyanki). At the start, you are saving the druid leader who is not working for the goblins and is there to assassinate the goblin leaders. He will return to his post as soon as your party accomplishes it. The devil (not a demon) does have a deal and it is his introduction. You can help 1 friendly individual illithid, but the other ones are enemies. Still, if it is too stressful and unpleasant to try again and you are confident that there is nothing you like about the game, saving your time and looking for something else might be a better option.

Have our annual survey on employee satisfaction. What I would like to say But said I would recommend people work here

Didn't try this solo, but Scordeo's Trophy on a Bloodmage/Ranger is pretty cool in general imo: The enchantment "Opening Barrage" reduces recovery universally (also for spells etc.). With Driving Flight and Gunner as well as the Pistol modal "Rushed Reload" you can stack a lot of those recovery bonuses quickly - and with Wall of Draining you can keep all of them going on forever, which leads to very short recovery and reloading times. You can then spam all sorts of spells with very short recovery time, shoot with little reloading time (there's a cap on reloading time though, at some point it won't get reduced further). Combine with Deleterious Alacrity of Motion and you can not only shoot and cast very quickly but also run very fast and not get engaged (immunity to engagement). Being able to kite enemies is very useful in a solo run. A Bloodmage can use Healing Hands (the gloves) in combination with Wall of Draining (the Minor Lay on Hands' healing stays forever) and Blood Sacrifice - and thus you don't have to worry about the self damage of Blood Sacrifice and Alacrity too much. All those Wall of Draining shenanigans in combination with Bloodmage make a solo run more easy anyways. There's also the Essential Phantom (summons are always nice for a solo run) which gets an exact copy of all your gear, including the pistol. The phantom stacks Opening Barrage, too - so it shoots faster and faster the longer it stays. However, it neither has Driving Flight nor the Rushed Reload modal and it cannot use Wall of Draining. But it gets the +12 accuracy for single weapon usage, so its accuracy is very good (for a summon).

now ca can sell 20 different flavor of tincan

D4 Paladin at last with the new expansion, and another class.

hi, in my concern, build around pistol(s) is always good with multiclassed ranger (Arcane Archer with Thundercrack pistol, or Gunhawk with a mod) combined with Monk (Nalpazca or Helwaler at distance) since Enduring Dance generate wounds and accuracy. If you want to make an one handed pistolero, the modal is a good option : you loose the +35% action speed from dual wielding, but the -50% reload time bonus match well with these weapons (1.1s attack, 5.0 reload time), so without loosing accuracy, since One Handed provide +12acc. You can also take a look to Ranger - Barbarian (Berserker or Mage Slayer*), really fast and efficient build even if you loose Carnage attack. -* as mage slayer, melee weapon hit produce a significative debuff to caster enemy, and that work with the AoE attack of Frostseeker, so you can use it as second weapon slot to manage casters at distance. 9 pen is not a lot, so Tenacious and other pen buffs can be usefull (Berseker's Frenzy or Monk's Thunderous Blows for example). Constitution debuff is also a good way, and this is also an alternative way to "increase" damages done, if you look as percent of total health. Higher accuracy is also a good way to buff pen, if you crit often. Passive acc bonuses from Ranger stack with actives, and Driving Flight & Concussive Tranquiliser are brutals. If you want to build a versatile pistolero with a spell palette, ranger + chanter or cipher (+ ranger or solo) can be good, also, but not at the caliber of monk or barbarian. ThundercracK pistol is really good, but Eccea's Arcane Blaster is not a joke, but if you opte for this last weapon and choose Bullet Time enchantment, take care to look the effect from your eyes, this is not listed in the current effect window (only in the character page (at c) ). You are able to prolonge the short duration with Int, and Ooblit if you get it, and Salvation of Time from priest.

please make pillars of eternity 3 start kickstarter maybe? -Anıl Erdem Sarak